In spite of the war, the IOC had many events at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland to celebrate its 50th anniversary. These events happened on 17 June to 19 June 1944 and were called "The Jubilee Celebrations of IOC" by Carl Diem, the man who began the modern tradition of the Olympic torch relay.

Polish POWs in the Woldenberg (Dobiegniew) Oflag II-CPOW camp were granted permission by their Nazi captors to have an unofficial POW Olympics in 1944, showing that the Olympic spirit can survive even during war.[1]